|
|
| Subject: A sponsorship story from the UK |
|
|
|
Marriage law to split Canadian, Welsh husband
Friday, July 24, 2009
A Canadian woman faces deportation from the United Kingdom and an 18-month separation from her husband because of a British law aimed at preventing forced marriages.
Rochelle Wallis, 19, says her life is in flux after learning she may have to leave her husband, Adam, and their new home in Wales until she turns 21 in 2011.
"It´s quite scary. I mean, I´m living on edge because I don´t know if they´re going to turn up at six o´clock in the morning and chuck me out of the country," she said.
The pair decided to get married last year when she visited him in his village of Pontrhydygroes, Wales. The couple met two years earlier in Canada and remained in touch.
They applied to be married a month before her six-month visa expired, but wedding plans had to be delayed after officials lost their passport photos.
By the time the couple married in November 2008, she had outstayed her visa, meaning she would have to return to Canada and apply for a spousal visa before coming back to Wales.
However, under the U.K.´s new Forced Marriages Act, if she left Britain, she wouldn´t be allowed to return until she was 21.
The law is supposed to protect women — primarily from South Asia — from being forced into an arranged marriage. Women from outside the European Union must be at least 21 years old before they are permitted to join their husbands in the U.K.
The couple can move to another EU country and live together.
MP supports couple
A letter from the U.K. Border Agency called the 18-month separation an "inconvenience" for the couple.
British officials told BBC she now faces deportation because she overstayed her visa.
The couple have written to their MP, Mark Williams, and their situation has also caught the attention of Keith Vaz, the MP who chairs the British Parliament´s home affairs committee.
Vaz says this was clearly not a forced marriage and he´s prepared to take up the Wallis case.
"Sometimes when legislation is passed for a good reason, with all the best intentions of the world, it has the consequence that was totally unintended," said Vaz.
Rochelle Wallis doesn´t dispute the fact that she overstayed her visa, but says they weren´t warned about the new law when their marriage licence was approved.
"We found out through our own research because nobody told us that they had enforced the law four days after we got married," she said.
"It´s not right. There shouldn´t be an age limit on when I should and should not be able to get married and be in love."
She says the MPs have been helpful.
"They’ve been very supportive and they’ve done a lot with us and they’ve just been really great," she said.
Rochelle Wallis says moving as a couple to Canada for 18 months isn´t really an option because they don´t have jobs there. Adam Wallis, 28, recently got a job as an electrical technician in Wales, Britain´s Guardian newspaper reported.
[24-07-2009,13:41]
[***.20.116.15]
Sharon |
|
(in reply to: A sponsorship story from the UK)
It is nice that the Canadian woman tried to stay in Britain but it is the British law that will force them to move to Canada and probably stay put in Canada for years before she is legally allowed back to Britain at which time she can claim her British citizenship and live there. I wish more Canadian women followed their heart, like this one, and moved or tried to move to the country of their husbands instead of trying to drag the men over to here all the time.
[24-07-2009,14:39]
[***.202.38.241]
Great Helper |
(in reply to: A sponsorship story from the UK)
Your Handle "Great Helper" when your soooooo negative towards any loving couple anywhere in the world regardless of circumstances warrants you a Troll Alert.
Roy
www.cvimmigration.com
[24-07-2009,16:42]
[**.15.48.152]
Roy |
|
